> Now, will whoever Cipher is please come out from behind the stage and
> introduce himself? I'd love to close this forum with a coda of sorts.
> Let's hear what the genesis of this whole thing was!

If you insist, Miguel. :-)

As the new (current) www.bungie.org design was being developed, a space for a strange puzzle was incorporated into it. Claude and I got in touch with Matt Soell, and suddenly, we had something really, really cool: The development notes now archived at arrival.bungie.org.

After receiving our "goal"--as well as setting the site, login, and password up--I started work on the cipher itself. I already knew what sorts of things I wanted to encompass, and once I started the puzzle, it just sorta started to flow quickly. The goal, on my end, was to cover as many mostly or completely unrelated things as possible, to make as many people as possible scream. ;-)

When Claude and I got Matt's goodie bag, our jaws fell and broke floorboards instantly. (It was really hard for us, keeping it from Hamish. ;-)) I, personally, wanted to run right out and upload the files everywhere, after having read them for the first time.

I didn't think it [the cipher] would get this big. I mean, wow.

So, as I finish this post, I would again like to give a heartfelt "congratulations" to everyone who has worked on the cipher over the past month. I'm sure it drove you insane, solving it, as much as it drove me insane, trying to keep my mouth shut about it all outside of confirmations and clues. :-)